KELLY BEEMAN

When Beeman returned home, she began a series of drawings, aselection of which are on view at Perrotin Gallery, Tokyo, as part ofOverflow. Her central protagonists emerged: her signature oval faced woman with almond-shaped eyes and an elongated nose hasnow become a mother with the addition of a young boy, a stand-infor Beeman’s own. In turn, these drawings developed into a seriesof large-scale paintings in the cool palette of water, muted lapis,slate, violet, lavender, and sage green. These works are an allegoryfor the profound changes women undergo during motherhood. InBeeman’s words, “Overflow describes the magnitude of an experiencethat cannot be adequately described in words or even in paintings,to something so immense it spills out and bleeds into everything else.”

In the weeks leading to birth you realize that you are not in control.You cannot control your body nor how the baby will arrive. Whenthe baby comes you feel an overwhelming love and cripplingresponsibility for this helpless new life. Exhausted, you realize thatyou didn’t truly understand what tired meant until you became amother. Time slows down and speeds up again. Sometimes thenights and days blur together, but the seconds and minutes seemto last forever. You could stare at his sleeping face for an eternity.Life is no longer about your own wants and needs but that ofanother. His cries alarm you but you start to distinguish betweenthem: hunger, wanting to be held, frustration, and the most awful,pain. As these shifts and disruptions take place, it is as though youare caught in the middle of a storm. You cannot control the weatherbut you must do what you can to weather it.

In First Rain and Rain Cloud, mother and son embark on their ownadventure, as gray clouds appear overhead. At first they areprotected under a playful, two-toned purple and white umbrella,but as the rain intensifies, the land swells, and the water rises. They find themselves Underwater, fully clothed, surrounded by lush seagrass, her hair swept upwards as she clutches her child. There aretwo versions of Underwater: in the pen and ink drawing, motherand son are surrounded by a school of fish; and in the painting theyare surrounded by purple flowers while a red and black stripedsnake lurks below. The fish are innocuous new neighbors, but thesnake threatens to tangle them further into the water’s depths.While ominous, the snake symbolizes a kind of transformationthrough its shed skin, just as a woman sheds her past self as shebecomes a mother. To be under water describes the feeling ofbeing overwhelmed, stressed, and drowning in work or parenting,another email to answer, another diaper to change, and anothersleepless night. To be underwater is also to experience weightlessness, like astronauts training underwater to mimic being in space.The mother and son inhabit a floating world of beauty and dangerbut they are untethered and she must come up for air to save herson and herself.

During the Edo era when Japan was isolated from the rest of theworld, ukiyo-e artists depicted the floating world of their surroundings, from geisha, kabuki actors, and sumo wrestlers of the red lightdistrict, to the everyday moments that made up urban life, includingmothers and their children. Japanese master Kitagawa Utamarofocused his compositions on faces and torsos, rendering quietintimate scenes such as a woman combing her hair, mothersbreastfeeding, carrying babies on their backs, and rubbing theirsleepy eyes. These mass produced prints were largely consumedby the increasingly wealthy merchant class, which occupied thelowest class within the social hierarchy of Tokugawa era Japan. In the late 19th century, when Japan opened up to the rest of theworld, the prints became inspiration for impressionists such asMary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot not just in subject matter, butcomposition and color.

There is a kinship between Utamaro’s flat perspectives, boldcolors, clean lines, and depictions of mothers and babies toBeeman’s long limbed mothers and sons. Utamaro and Beemanshare additional affinities through their use of pattern and focus onclothing. Utamaro beautifully captured kimono textiles, utilizingnegative space and foregoing traditional black lines to delineatenumerous patterns from ikat to undulating waves and simple dots.Beeman too builds upon her work in high fashion with bold red andblack checkered blankets, polka dots patterns, the petals ofgolden flowers, and the concentric rings of leaves and grass. Likemotherhood, these associations cross time and geographythrough generations of mothers and generations of sons.

In Carrying, Beeman portrays a woman, her face soft and her gazeneutral in a ruffled black dress with blue polka dots. She carries herson and they have emerged from the flood, almost naked, only hisbright red underwear peeking out from behind her. He is not ababy, perhaps 9 or 10, his thigh almost the length of hers. Herhidden right arm supports his weight as he leans his head into herneck, she seems to support him easily. And isn’t that how it is withchildren, that you are carrying them even when they are too large tobe carried? At first you carry him inside of you. Then he is so smallyou can cradle him in one arm, head in your hand, his back againstyour forearm. As he grows you learn to carry him in different ways: you brace him against your shoulder and rub his back to calm himor burp him. He is in a carrier now against your chest and will onlyfall asleep with you standing up, hips swaying side to side. As hegrows, you can now carry him one handed, his legs wrappedaround your hip. As he gets bigger, and he starts walking, he stillwants to be carried. Sometimes you lie on your back and lift himhigh like an airplane, his laughter ringing in your ears.

Flight in the form of a dragonfly, swans, and hummingbirds appearthroughout several works. Mute Swans are invasive to the UnitedStates, yet they inhabit numerous parks and lakes. Once a swanfinds a mate, they are bonded together for life. They raise theircygnets together, building a nest and incubating the egg. Parentsoften carry young cygnets on their backs for warmth and safety.Hummingbirds are among the smallest birds in the world. Vibratingmid-air, their small delicate bodies whiz past at dizzying speeds.Seeing the world through your boy’s eyes, you see things from hisperspective too, the colors, the surprise at something he’s neverseen before. How do birds fly? How do they fly so fast? The worldis full of wonders, bright, beautiful, and scary. In Baby Bird, theyoung boy cups a white baby bird in his hands. You’ve heard thatbaby birds that have been held by humans will be rejected by theirmothers and you feel a pang of regret, yet your son cradles him sosoftly, you wish this to not be true. You can’t protect him forever,but you can try.

The mother and son are safe now, they have escaped the flood, thewaters recede and their familiar surroundings, the house, fence andtrees appear again. Still partially submerged, the world around them is recognizable yet different. The mother wraps her son in ablanket in Swaddled. You remember how the faded hospitalblanket with its pattern of small foot prints proved to be the bestswaddle. You practice folding the square fabric into a triangle andcreating a perfect cocoon for your child snug like a caterpillar.Often he squirms his way out of the swaddle and his little armsneaks out and you have to swaddle him again. You check to seethat he is indeed still breathing. You realize you will do anything forthis boy and this thought exhilarates and frightens you. Sometimesyou don’t recognize yourself and who you have become.

The mother Beeman depicts is both universal and personal, asymbol of courage to go beyond one’s self towards the unknown.In each piece, she captures the fleeting wonders of life from thefeeling of your child asleep on your body to the buzzing of adragonfly. Taken as a whole, the works tell the story of a seismicshift into motherhood, through a flood, a rescue, and its aftermathinto a world that is familiar and yet has irrevocably transformed.Standing before the paintings in Overflow, like Beeman standingin front of the Great Hunt in Sicily, we are awed by one of life’sgreatest adventures.

Tomoko Kanamitsu

Courtesy Perrotin.